A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by a Christian professor who sued his employer for forcing him use opposite sex pronouns when speaking to transgender-identifying persons.
The lawsuit, filed by Nicholas Meriwether against Shawnee State University, a small public university in southern Ohio, argued that the school had unjustly compelled him to speak things he did not believe.
SSU maintained that using such language was a part of his job description and, as such, the First Amendment does not apply to his contention, a conclusion which U.S. District Judge Susan Dlott, appointed by Bill Clinton, concurred.
“His speech — the manner by which he addressed a transgender student — was not protected under the First Amendment,” Dlott wrote, according to Cleveland.com.
Meriwether was represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian firm that frequently takes on religious liberty and other First Amendment cases.
“I encourage my students to express their political and religious views, and professors should have the same freedom,” Meriwether said in a statement sent out from ADF.
“But the University insisted that I endorse an ideology I do not believe is true. This is simply wrong. True tolerance must be a two-way street. Now the district court suggests that professors have no free speech rights, which should trouble us all. Public universities have no business compelling people to express ideological beliefs that they do not hold. But the court’s decision opens the door for them to shift from being a marketplace of ideas to an assembly line for one type of thought.”
ADF attorney Travis Barham said Monday that they are considering their options in light of the court’s dismissal.
“This is wrong,” Barham said in a statement.
“Public universities have no business compelling people to express ideological beliefs that they don’t hold.”
SOURCE: Christian Post, Brandon Showalter
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